Seeing Her Off
by ThoseWhoWander98
Summary: Teddy came to see Victoire off- and James just had to walk in, didn't he? Oneshot.


SEEING HER OFF

"It's your last year," Teddy says with a twinkle in his eye (gray today, in contrast with his hair, which is shaggy and a shocking shade of teal). "You're going to love it, I promise."

"I know..." Victoire says dully. "But it won't be half as fun without you there. And I'm getting sick of all the girls in my dorm trying to hook me up with that Hufflepuff bloke. They know I'm with you; it's been nearly two years."

"You won't take them up on that offer, will you now?" Teddy asks jokingly. Victoire shakes her head.

"Of course not. You will write me, won't you?" She lays her hands on his chest and grins, a rare feat for her usually solemn face. That is one of the things Teddy loves about Victoire—she wasn't crazy or silly or even really that excitable, but she still knew how to have fun and she was far from a mopey person.

"If I get around to it..." Teddy begins, trying to hide his smile. When Victoire's face falls, he adds, "I might be too busy wishing I could do... this." He presses his lips, slightly open, to hers. He knows that Victoire loves it when he does this—breaks off a deteriorating conversation to snog her.

After what seems like only seconds but could easily have been two minutes, Teddy pulls away and sees Victoire with a slight, mischievous glint in her eyes. "Oh, Vicky," he says, taking her pale and delicate hand. Teddy is the ONLY person who is allowed to call her Vicky. Period. "I'm going to miss you."

"Of course you are, if you're not going to write me," she points out with no laughter in her voice. Teddy chuckles, because he knows it's a joke—it's a mark of how well he knows his girlfriend that he can tell what she means, even though most of what she says is said in the same tone.

Teddy pulls her a little closer. The nice thing about King's Cross is that, even though it's beyond crowded, everybody is so busy minding their own business that they don't notice what anyone else is doing, unless they're related. "Well, when you put it that way, I suppose I'll have to take time off of my extremely busy schedule in Flourish and Blotts to write you," he says with mock exasperation. Victoire rolls her eyes and Teddy smiles. Little things like that—he loves it when something he says can make the quiet, simple, serious girl open up.

"Kiss me goodbye?" Victoire asks hopefully, letting her blonde hair fall across the blue Weasley eyes that Teddy loves so much in her delicate face.

Teddy's hand is in Victoire's long, wavy hair when he hears an amused voice from behind him. "Are you eating her face, Teddy?" James' voice is dripping with amused sarcasm. With a start, Teddy and Victoire wrench away and Teddy whirls around.

"James! What are you doing here? Merlin, don't do that. Um, James. Hello!" Teddy rambles on, not quite sure what he is saying. He feels by the tingling sensation in his scalp that his hair is changing colour—probably from the blissful purple it always is when he is kissing Victoire to an angry red or fuchsia—the same colour as his face. Clenching his fingers, Teddy tries not to swear. The last moment he'll have alone with Victoire until Christmas, and _James_, of all people, had to walk in on it. Teddy presses his lips together, frustrated, embarrassed and enraged.

"Teddy, what were you doing? That's my _cousin_ you were snogging!" James says with prying interest in his brown eyes. He raises his eyebrows, a naughty grin on his angular face.

Teddy moves forward slightly, so that he is in front of Victoire, who, being impossibly shy, he knows will be tomato red and possibly close to tears with anger. Is an adorable thing about her that he finds endearing and she hates—she can't help but burst into tears when she's embarrassed or angry. "I _know_, James. Go—away—please. Now. I've just come to see her off."

James shakes his head, smirking with the power he has over Teddy. "But that's my cousin, Teddy! It's not my fault that my familial, masculine instinct to protect is taking over! It didn't look like you were just saying goodbye," he protests, trying not to laugh. Teddy's eyes widened and he took a careful step towards James.

"Look, Potter—you're like my brother, which is why I find no guilt in saying, rudely, _go away. Scram. Shoo. BUGGER. OFF."_

"Why should I?" James says the words with playful malice. "I want to know why you're snogging her. I mean, come on, Teddy. She's _Victoire._ I know she's gorgeous, but she's annoying as heck. Er, no offense, Victoire."

"James!" she exclaims. "This coming from the boy who spends his spare time snooping in his father's office looking for strictly off-limits objects!"

James grins. "You know I love you, cuz," he says. "Talking back for once—I've taught you well."

"Shut up," Victoire mutters.

Teddy glares at James. "Oi! You aren't even supposed to be here anymore! Let alone be insulting my girlfriend! "

"I'm not leaving," James says in a singsong voice, rocking back on his heels. "Not until you tell me. Or give me a good reason," he adds in a rare fit of mercy in his intentional annoyingness.

Teddy laughs in almost a maniacal way—he has finally thought of how to make James leave. "Reason?" he asks. "You want a reason? All right. How about: I'm eighteen, you're thirteen, I can legally jinx you, but by law, you're defenceless against me. I have four years more education than you and your Dad can't technically punish me."

"All right, I'm leaving!" James says. "But everybody's going to know about this. And I'm telling Mum it scarred me for life." Tearing off, he cries out, "Mum! Albus! Lily, Dad! You won't believe what I just saw!"

Chuckling, anger forgotten, Teddy turns back around to face Victoire as his hair fades back to its natural mousy brown. "Are you ready?" he asks. She nods. Pecking her on the cheek one last time, Teddy says, "You'll have a letter from me waiting when you wake up tomorrow, okay?" He's scared witless about this—about not seeing her for a year, that she'll fall out of love, or like, or whatever she's in with him. He loves her, he's almost sure. Ever since the end of his sixth year they'd been dating, and still nobody in the family knew. Teddy hadn't exactly intended this. Only, after four months, he realized he'd never mentioned it and he figured that it would be easier to just avoid mockery via James and Lily and Rose (Albus and Hugo were more solemn—thank Merlin) if he just didn't tell.

Victoire smiles shakily, nodding. "And I'll write back right away." The five minute warning that the Hogwarts staff had taken to issuing after two first years missed the train four or five years previously echoed through the station. "I'd better go. Love you," she says sadly.

"I love you too," Teddy replies, helping Victoire heave her trunk onto the train. "Bye, now! Christmas will be here before you know it!" Reaching out his hand to grab Victoire's fingers in his one last time through the window, Teddy watches as the train pulls slowly away, gaining speed steadily. His eyes sting slightly as the train vanishes, but he shakes the tears off.

_After all_, he tells himself, _Christmas will be here before you know it._


End file.
